ClaphamFox

Not just a local lad, but by all accounts a very decent one who loves the club and is the kind of character we need more of. That's not necessarily a reason to keep him if the offer is right, but it will be a shame to lose a genuinely good egg when we have so many bad ones.

He has his limitations but he's very hard-working and is a better finisher than Daka (though admittedly that's a low bar to clear). It wouldn't surprise me to see McKenna turn him into a very useful player.

We never aspired to send our children to private school, but that was before our older boy was diagnosed with autism and ADHD. He's currently at a small village primary school in a small class, where he gets a lot of input from his teacher and the TAs, and is thriving academically. There is a very good state second school near us, but it is a large school with 30+ pupils in each class and it's just not the kind of environment in which he'll thrive. Prior to the lifting of the VAT exemption, we calculated that we could just about afford to send him to one of the local private schools and had chosen one that has a good reputation for working with neuro diverse kids. Unfortunately the lifting of the VAT exemption has killed that plan stone dead and he will now likely have to go a very large state secondary where his potential will likely go unfulfilled because they simply won't have the resources to provide the support he needs. The refusal to allow for any exemptions for children with additional needs seems particularly malicious. I've been a Labour supporter all my life, but the devastating impact this policy will have on my son has made me loathe the party. Not enough to vote Tory or Reform (that will never happen), but probably enough for me to never vote Labour again. I'm aware that there is a much bigger picture and that I should probably not allow one issue to affect my view so much, but when it's your child's future it's hard to be rational about it.

There was a certain diagonal pass he could make that was exquisite. But the 2nd goal we conceded on Saturday provided enough proof - as if we needed it - that another slow CB is not what we need.

Just under £20m I think.

I remember it being regarded as a major coup when Palace got him. There was already a lot of excitement about him - much more so than there is about BEK now. I'll be very sorry to see BEK go, but it's silly to pretend he's close the level Eze was at the same age.

I don’t disagree with any of that. But the fact that Rodgers was one of the causes does not alter the fact that he was accurate in what he described after the Forest defeat. And if he was the sole cause, or even the main cause, of our problems a few years ago, it would have been possible to correct them by now. The fact that things remain as bad points to a deep malaise that stems from a complete absence of leadership from the top.

We can repeat this sentiment a thousand times, but unfortunately it will not change a thing if nobody wants those players.

He was completely right and many of us could see it at the time. Since then, Cooper, RVN and now Cifuentes have struggled to change the culture of the squad. Only Maresca had any success, but sadly all the progress he made left the building with him.

There are ten days of the transfer window left and we’ve always known that players would have to depart before we brought new ones in. There will be incomings - just not as many as we’d like and very late in the window.

My eight-year-old has been diagnosed with both conditions but I assure you there would be a vast improvement if he were appointed Director of Communications tomorrow. I mean you'd probably have to endure detailed press releases about the electronics used in the turnstiles and tweets about the type of laundry liquid used to wash the players' kits, but you'd get to hear the important stuff too...

It sounds like BEK is their back-up option if they can't get Dibling.

I keep reading sentiments along these lines and I would love for somebody to explain why they believe asset stripping the squad would make it more attractive to potential buyers. By far the more logical interpretation is that the owners either have no intention of selling or have tried to sell but given up due to lack of interest, and have decided to prioritize balancing the books over squad investment.

So his agent’s not entirely useless, then…

It’s probably also to do with wanting to prove that we’ve learned our lesson and are now complying ahead of our hearing for the 23/24 charge.

I’ve heard him speak. Weirdly if you closed your eyes you’d think you were listening to Pam Ayres.

There are no credible reports of him having a strop - just that he wants the move. He’s not even close to Fofana territory yet.

Rob Dorsett is reporting that Palace have approached us, which is probably true. He’s also reporting that the deal would likely need to be around £30m PLUS add-ons, which, if true, seems about right to me.

Of course it’s lies. On Saturday BEK was poor in the first half but not noticeably worse than most of his teammates. Yet Cifuentes hooked him at half-time because he saw something in his performance he didn’t like. Yet some people actually believe that a manager who was clear-headed and decisive enough to do that would have tolerated BEK skiving off all week and still picked him to start on Saturday. Some people really will repeat any old shit they hear…

It was because they were able to double/treble-up on him and Mavididi safe in the knowledge that it would not lead to us causing danger in other areas because nobody else was making runs.

To be fair the journalist does admit that it will be hard to get a deal done on Fatawu.

£30m would likely get BEK but definitely not Fatawu. And while selling one of them is plausible, it’s highly unlikely we’d sell both in the same window unless insane money was offered that would enable us to completely overhaul the team. I can’t see Sunderland or anybody else offering that kind of money for Abdul.

@IainW198 on X: